What follows are some thoughts motivated by further contemplation of this morning’s reference to Jesus being the Temple. ~(Thanks also to Alan for his insightful blog on the issue from another perspective.)
I don’t think the irony could be anymore apt than seeing the real temple of the Living God singing a song about devoting themselves to be the living sanctuary of the Living God before going onto talk about the mega-push to buy an earthly constructed facility ‘for the Lord’.
Even at an early age there seemed to something amiss with the quest (in some cases obsession) for a building. It obviously occupied a significant amount of energy, money and other resources both in seeking it, finding it and maintaining it. Growing up my family attended a church gathering that rented a hall. There were never enough of us to fill the hall regularly and often there was barely enough to fill a small room in the hall. It never made sense to me why we rented the hall. Yet to question the decision was a futile exercise, because it was as sacrosanct as the Bible itself that to call yourself a church you needed to either have your own place or be able to rent your place.
Baffling.
What made it even more baffling was getting the hint that was being dropped throughout scripture that actually it was never God’s design to live in a place made by human hands. For all the earnest efforts of King David to make a house suitable for His presence; for all the splendour of the eventual majestic temple built on order by King Solomon; for all the effort and dedication of the rebuilding work by Ezra after the exile. For all that, this was only a hint that would be fully realised in Jesus. Where God has always desired to live is among His people – in His people – through His people.
When we quote the scripture about dwelling in the praises of His people, we are reconfirming the deal that the time would come when it would just be about the gathering of His people together to build each other up to be the lively stones that God created them to be that would be the end goal as seen in the Son.
Then note how many references are made in the New Testament about what things are done in Christ and then how we are ourselves the Body of Christ. Notice likewise what little effort or emphasis is ever placed on building structures as the church starts out in earnest. With the funds available and the goodwill at their beck and call, wherever they were whether Jerusalem or Antioch, Rome or Ephesus, there was surely enough for someone to say let’s have our own ‘temple’. Let’s have us our ‘tabernacle’ unto the Lord. Yet – and yet – no indication at all is given to that end. It is almost as if that was never meant to be the thrust of the called out people of God.
This makes the push for ‘our own sanctuary’ all the more baffling, you see. This makes the boasting of multi-million pound facilities all the more bizarre. This makes the financially crippling enterprises of smaller churches for the rent, upkeep and pursuit of a ‘place of worship’ all the more disheartening for the true purpose of God’s house.
In Jesus Christ the whole concept of a ‘place of worship’ is drastically rearranged. He not only tears the curtain of access to the Father, He breaks the walls down in our understanding of the ‘place’ that God chooses to dwell. It is not in a box, or a tent. It is not in an elaborate temple or magnificent cathedral. It is not in a sprawling complex or substantially decorated facility.
In this thinking God was confined to a time and a place. (Just ask the woman at the well.) The concept of the holiness of God pervading all life could only be nominally stated, because there was still an instruction of where He was and when we could get access to Him.
In Jesus Christ, though, things have changed. The awe, wonder, inspiration and devotion given to the physical location now belong to Him. There is no confinement for worship by place or time. The sacred/secular divide does not make sense to the true worshipper. The ‘sanctuary’ is just as much the small kitchen as it is a large hall. For all that is required for something to be made holy is the conscious awareness of the presence of God – and now that the veil has been torn that is an all-pervasive reality.
Now (and indeed always when you read the narrative in the light of Christ) the place that God chooses to dwell is in the gathering of His people (large or small). The power is not in the physical architecture – it’s in the lively stones of believers being fit together and maturing into the fullness of Christ.
I am not saying it’s not important to find a place to gather. I am saying that dedicating so much of the Family’s resources into it when there are other far more pressing Family concerns to address is counter-productive at best, and a gross and fatal abuse of the stewardship that we’re given at its worst.
The real tragic thing is to have the focus on that building project and miss out on the many splendored reality of experiencing Christ in His Body.
When the focus is centred on Christ and our worship is in Him, through Him and for Him, brothers and sisters are supported materially as well as spiritually. This provides the environment in which they contribute to Family life by the gifts God has given them expressing an element of Christ that allows the Body to grow.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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